Hi everyone.
I just purchased a '97 Maxima as a daily driver since it's time to put the snake to bed for the winter. I was looking for something inconspicuous and bought a (pearl?) white one with 47K miles and auto tranny off a car lot without doing a lot of research on it first. All I knew about Maximas as of yesterday was that they are rated very high for reliability. I was happy that I got a car that I could just drive and not be tempted to dork with.

That lasted all of about 2 hours. First off, I was surprised just how peppy this puppy is and now I am already thinking about making some changes to it since it seems like a pretty nice platform to work with. I have a couple of quick questions I'm hoping someone can help me with.

How do I know what model it is? Stupid question, but I can find no badging on it. I assume it is a GXE, but is there any way to tell for sure? It has 15" rims, so that makes me think it's probably a GXE, but it also has a white gauge cluster which I thought was only in the SE.

It appears that all models got the same 190HP motor, is that right? Any good links to sites with performance mods that someone can point me to? Looks like cold air intake and downpipe/catback work is common on these cars. Any info on realistic performance increases with the more common mods?

The styling of the car is really starting to grow on me with the exception of the back end. What is the best fix out there for the weak looking rear? Not looking for a ricer look, just a good clean muscular appearance. The factory spoiler looks like it would help and I may just go with that if nothing else, but I wouldn't mind a bit of a custom look.

Thanks in advance,
--- Ken

 

White gauges and spoiler = SE

 

glad to hear you enjoy the max.
www.maximadriver.com is a good place to learn new things and also check the FAQs here. just by looking through threads ehre you can get ideas on new looks and options you can do with appearance.

 

I wouldn't know where to start now that i have been modding for over two years, but try searching for different threads that may give you some insight. For the rear I would say maybe new tails or different bumper. A nice muffler also adds to it.

 

First thing. You are my hero, you got a viper. Second, a majority of the people here at the ord would say the best body kit is the STILLEN body kit. Its called the aero kit because its only a front spoiler and rear valences. Not a full bumper replacement and its so easy to do. Here is stillen aerokit and go to stillen.com or custommaxima.com for the performance mods. Custom maxima also has 2 other types of body kits. Skyline and sarona. If u look at group buys, find shadow and there is a JT autostyle body kit. Its really nice and its styline is crazt. For performace, stillen is pretty good but i heard some stuff like budget for the Y-pipe and MEVI is the best intake(MIDDLE EAST variable intake).

Next most important thing u gotta do depending on the body kit change the rear tailights. If u get a stilen aerokit, get the red clear tailights from david L(people at the org pay like 200 dollars for them, thats 60 more dollars than altezzas. Red clear tailights are just whiting out the yellow part of the tailights. Or if u get the skyline body kit, get the r33 tailights from jose at Ionicdynamics. They also have another alternative to the rear valence piece and their side skirts are the lowest or the 5 you can choose from.

And if u have white gauges, and have leather, they are aftermarket. So if u have leather u have gxe or gle. Depends if u have a wing, its se. U probably have SE. Unless u have leather. Than its gxe.

yeah. thats it right.

 

here are a few other tihngs to tell what trim it is

leather- SE/GLE
chrome door handles- GXE/GLE
chrome front grille- GXE/GLE
steelies and hubcaps- GXE
16" 5spoke wheels- SE
15" wheels- GLE (could be swapped around)
thicker steering wheel with lil perforated inserts- SE

its also on the VIN number, if ya do a search you will find more info

welcome to the org

 

davidL made lights for 95-96
VI is the complete manifold not an intake
I dont think gxes had leather

 

welcome to the org.if you look at your door handle,front grill color match then its an SE,if you look inside your back and there is no 3rd brake light then its an SE,SE come with spoiler so there is no 3rd brake light,so let the mods begin.use the search button on the top will answer alots of your ???

 

Screw all of that, get the turbo kit. And just go to home depot and buy some acrylic for $5 and clear out your tails. Then your rear won't look bad no more.

 

Peppy.....


wait till he finds out about the Turbo maximas

 

custommaxima.com is a nice place to buy stuff from

 

I think CustomMaxima is too Pricy, South West has awsome prices

 

Thanks everyone for the info. The Maximadriver.com site has a great overview of the common mods, so that is a great help in coming up to speed on these cars. I have no leather and no wing, but do have white gauges, so it looks like I probably have a GXE. I'll take a closer look tomorrow when it's light out. I'll definitely be spending some time on this site looking through the archives for more info, but I appreciate everyone taking the time to help get a newbie started.

Turbos would be nice but I'm gonna have to stick to the basic (cheaper) mods for now. Just out of curiousity, what is the upper end that is being reached for high HP street Maximas - NA and turbo/SC'd?

dgpfx, here's a pic of my other ride for you.



--- Ken

 

371hp to the wheels from Turbo97SE (Nigel) at just over 11psi on stock internals
I think thats where we are at right now

 

ya its 372 hp and 369 ft/lbs on 11.5 psi, be on the look out for that to be higher as i beleive he is building the engine up and throwing in a bigger turbo, he has also just installed the VI so i think he is close to 400 now. Also with just the basics, cat-back, high flow cat, y-pipe and CAI i gained about 35 whp from stock. and if you want a more smooth power curve up top the Variable intake manifold is a must, you gain approx 30+ whp at redline.
Ryan
by the way Nice Viper

 

To determine model: Open Hood, look twards passenger side at firewall. Silver plate with code, on second row look for:
BLHUL...etc, next letter denotes model
E = GXE
G = GLE
V = SE

-info stolen from faq you should read at top of 4th gen message forum


more stolen info:

>>There are some feature differences that can help you determine the trim level on site. Keep in mind that most of these can be changed aftermarket by the owner, but as we know the VAST majority of Maximas on the street are bone stock...

GXE
Black guage faces
Cloth seats
Basic stereo (BOSE optional but extremely rare)
Probably no sunroof (optional but very rare)
Chrome outer windwow trim and door handles
5spd or Auto trans
No spoiler
No fog lights
Steel wheels with hubcaps
Chrome grill on 97-99 models
Manual A/C


SE
White guage faces
"Sport" Cloth or leather seats
Basic or BOSE stereo
May have sunroof
Body color outer window trim and door handles
5spd or auto trans
Spoiler
Fog lights
15" blade-style (95-96) or 16" 5 spoke (97-99) alloy wheels
Body color grill on 97-99 models
Manual A/C or climate control

GLE
Black guage faces
Leather seats
BOSE stereo
Sunroof
Chrome outer window trim and door handles
Auto trans only
No spoiler
No fog lights
15" honeycomb (95-96) or 15" blade-style (97-99) alloy wheels
Chrome grill on 97-99 models
Fake wood color dash and door trim
Fuzzy A-pillars on some years
Pop-out drawer (not flip-down) below radio on some years
Climate control only <<


ok, enough stealing!!!

-jake

 

Ken,

Thing is...we really don't know. NO ONE has overstressed and blow a VQ motor yet with boost (people have detonated and blown up, but that will happen with any motor).

The problem that most are running into right now is fuel delivery. The stock 270cc injectors are way too weak for much boost. At 11.5 psi with the turbo they are probably near 100% duty cycle. The 300ZX TT injectors do fit but to really take advantage of them we'd need a dedicated tuner that could re-tune the ECU to compensate. The only thing that is holding the maxima back in terms of HP right now is aftermarket support.

 

stupid question, but what exactly happens when u put oversized injectors, lets say 370, on a non tuned ECU. i take it, that it would run rich.

Matt(MardiGrasMax) got the 370s to work, but he was SC, and was using the Vortec FMU, and ran really low fuel pressure. If u didnt have a the Vortec FMU, would you still be able to adjust fuel pressure to compensate, or would that not work bc fuel pressure would be too low?

 

I was just looking for a reliable sedan with decent power when I came across the Maxima and discovered that it was faster than A lot of 'sporty' cars. Sounds like you kind of did the same thing, but for me the Maxima has to satisfy all my performance needs .

Cosmetically clear bumper lights and red clear tails are the most common mods, IMHO they improve the looks dramatically while still looking nearly stock. (see my sig pic)

An aftermarket y-pipe gives us good gains because the stock y-pipe contains the retrictive pre-cats. You should still pass emissions testing with the main cat in place. An intake will give a couple of HP and add an agressive sound at WOT. The B-pipe has a couple of nasty crimps in it but even so replacing it will only give a couple of HP.

A strut tower brace (STB) will make a big handling improvement and is cheap and easy to install.

A valve body upgrade (VB) for faster shifts is another good mod for autotragics.

There is a dyno forum on this MB if you would like to see how much power guys are putting down. 180-190 FWHP is about the highest the N/A guys are putting down. And all 4th Gen Maximas did come with the same engine. The SE 'sporty' model does have slightly stiffer springs, but it is a very small difference.

 

350-400HP to the wheels is quite respectable for any car. That's enough to lay hurt on just about anything you are like to meet on the street.

As far as running out of fuel delivery, seems like a lot of cars can get away with just letting the stock ECU 'relearn' that it has larger injectors through monitoring the A/F ratio or by using a generic Air/Fuel controller like the Apexi AFC. I used to run a Mitsu 3000GT VR4 twin turbo. Mine was modified a little and kept the stock fuel system, but the guys who were running large turbos, high boost and oversize injectors all got away with just running these generic fuel controllers to get stuff tuned in. No one ever messed with reprogramming the ECU.

Using low fuel pressure to regulate the flow of the larger injectors seems like it would be an exercise in futility since it would seem like it would have to affect atomization of the injectors and possibly lead to fuel starvation under acceleration g forces. Definitely not something you'd want in an engine under boost.

--- Ken

 

I understand Duty cycle from my electronics classes but have one question with them regarding the fuel injectors, How do you tell what Duty they are at? Is it a special kind of test equipment that hooks up the the injectors themselves or do you pull this info from the ECU somehow? Just curious.


SuDZ

 

Welcome to the board Ken, get readyto start modding

 

Before I say anything, I want to say that you ROCK! Viper's are my absolute favorite car, they are so sweet! I'd live in it lol...anyways this is just my preference, I like parts from STILLEN and custommaxima.com thats where I get my things. Keep the viper nice, or I'll have to take it from you for mistreating it! Take it easy, and welcome enjoy your maxima!
Justin

 

Ken,
I want to be like you when I grow up!!!! The Viper is My Dream Car but for now the maxima will do! Welcome to the org! You should find a wealth of info here on this forum! If you can think of it, do a search and you will find all of the answers you are looking for!

 

If you have a GXE and it had white gauges when you bought it, I would do a car fax report to make sure there is no discrepency with the mileage. It sounds like someone swapped a SE gauge cluster in your GXE model.

 

To see what the true duty cycle of your injectors is you would have to remove them from the car and send them to a shop like RC engineering for blueprinting. They would printout a report of each individual injector.

Hope that answered your question.

 

Thanks. I was basicly looking for what you gave just a general idea. I just have been reading more and more on forums about how people are at xx% DC and was just curious how they found it out.

SuDZ

 

I guess guys on this forum (including me) have realized that our injectors max out at about 100psi of fuel pressure. That's when they start to fail...so 100psi would be 100% duty cycle for our injectors

 

OMGGGGGGGGGGGGG, I think I just wet my pants. Sorry guys!!!

 

Adam, Sorry for the confusion. My gauge cluster is black with white lettering, not the other way around. I bought a Chilton service manual today and plan to put in a little better radio head unit this weekend since my son had one laying around. Mods have already begun.

Thanks for the compliments on the Viper. It was my dream car as well and affording it was a bit of a stretch, but I place a high priority on my transportation It is a fun car, but if there is such a thing as 'too much' when it comes to cars, the Viper is it. One thing is for sure, if I had this thing when I was in high school, I wouldn't have stayed a virgin as long as I did
----

Regarding the duty cycle for fuel injectors, I think there is some confusion of terms.

Typically duty cycle is determined by how long the injector is turned ON vs turned OFF. This is controlled by a voltage applied to the injectors by the PCM. It looks like a square wave with a variable duty cycle. If the injector is on for half the available time, the duty cycle is 50%.

Since a given injector can only flow a set amount of gas due to the fixed size of its orifice, to provide more gas the injector is held ON for a longer period of time. When an injector has to be turned ON for over 90% of the time to provide enough fuel, it is getting maxed out on its duty cycle (close to 100%) and it is generally time to look for larger injectors which can flow more fuel given the same amount of time.

Some of the air/fuel controllers and other electronic gadgets will display the injector duty cycle by tapping into the control line between the PCM and the injectors. I have seen some DIY schematics which show ways to build simple little duty cycle monitoring circuits as well.

Outfits like RC Engineering on the other hand typically blueprint the injectors to make sure that they flow the same amount of gas. That way, given the same duty cycle, each injector provides a matched amount of gas to its cylinder. Or of course, they can provide injectors which flow more gas by either reworking stock ones or providing upgraded ones.

On NA cars, running out of gas due to injector limitations is generally not the end of the world. On a high boost application however, if the gas supply starts to run short while the engine is frantically trying to make power, the engine will start to burn the next best thing which is usually the aluminum in the pistons. That's why you generally never want to go past about 90% on the injectors to ensure you have some margin for error.

--- Ken

 

Maxima lovers with a Viper as their dream car? Not saying its a bad car, Id take one. IMO if its going to be a DREAM car, and a Nissan lover, why not dream, jizz, wet, ect yourslef over a lovely Bay Side Blue R34? HUH? Yeah, Skyline > Viper.

 

I bet most of the people who got excited over the Viper would be just as excited over the Skyline as well.

SuDZ

 

ken sounds like a very smart person.

 

to find out the car trim, just look in the driver side door opening

 

yeah, but i'd rather be seen in a viper.

so. in terms of amt of hoes you can get:

Viper > Skyline.

 

Eh but when you pull up to the light next to a Viper in your Skyline, that h0 in the Viper's passenger seat will soon be chillin in your car cuz that Viper just lost to a 2.6L Inline-6 :P Hehe.

 

I like Vipers; I have driven one and loved it. But those things are so low. I was surprised that they were so comfortable.

 

I hope u realize a stock GTR, would get swallowed whole by a Viper.

 

Do yourself a favor and get a fstb (front strut tower brace, many cheap brands) and rsb (rear sway bar, made by addco or stillen), as far as easy handling mods go. Those two cheap mods make day to day driving much better, of course, unlike most of us, you can break out the viper if you need even more handling...

 

damn! Nice viper. Thanks for the pics. Gxe doesnt come in leather? I saw one with leather. Oh well.

Man, vipers and skylines. All i can afford i a car that can get to point a and poin b, and that car is a maxima.
the closest i got to owning a viper was when i had this how wheel toy. I always played with it like vrroooom. It was coool back then when i was 6. Wonder how it would be driving one!